A Toy Story
by Settiai
Summary: It probably said a lot that they really weren't even that surprised when the entire toy store suddenly came to life.


". . . and I think you guys are super cool, and it's _awesome_ that you're here! I mean, you're the bomb! And it's totally a dream of mine to be a member of the Justice League someday."

The 15-or-so-year-old girl that had been raving at him for the past ten minutes or so took a deep breath and finally stopped talking. Ted blinked a few times, more surprised by the sudden silence than anything else. Well, comparative silence, at least. "Silence" probably wasn't quite the right word to use when describing a packed toy store the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it was still-

Booster elbowed him lightly in the side.

"Gah!" Ted exclaimed, startled. Then, when the girl's face fell slightly, he quickly planted what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face. "I mean, that's great. That you're such a fan. We're really glad that you stopped by, uh-"

"Gina," the girl supplied eagerly. "My name's Gina."

"Gina," Ted said quickly. "It's always nice to meet fans. And, who knows, maybe you'll make it onto the team of these days."

Her eyes widened and she practically started bouncing in place. Ted quickly moved his estimate of his age downward from 15 to something more along the lines of 11 or 12. "Do you really think so?" she asked breathlessly.

Ted did his best to smile at her. "I'm sure of it."

She made a sound that couldn't be described as anything but a squeal before clapping her hands, turning, and rushing off. Ted stared for a moment, blinking in surprise.

Beside him, Booster started to chuckle, though he quickly tried to disguise it as a cough when Ted turned and glared at him.

"Remind me again why we're here?" Ted muttered.

Booster shrugged. His already strained grin became even more forced as he waved at two women in their early twenties who were walking by. One of them blushed, while the other giggled and started pulling her friend in the direction of the line of people slowly gathering nearby next to the sign advertising "autographs from the Justice League at noon."

Of course, there was another sign nearby advertising the popular new toy of the season, so it was kind of hard to tell what the line was actually for. Not that Ted didn't have his guesses.

Beside him, Booster let his arm drop. His grin didn't fade, though.

Ted rolled his eyes. "You do realize that I can tell you're faking the smile, right?"

Booster glanced at him, the first hint of amusement Ted had seen all morning appearing in his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said innocently. "What makes you think I'm not enjoying myself?"

Ted held up a finger. "Well, we're in a mall." He held up another finger. "In New Jersey." He held up a third finger. "On a Saturday." He held up his pinky. "Much too early in the morning." He held up his thumb. "Two days after Thanksgiving."

Someone suddenly threw their arm over Ted's shoulder and he yelped before he realized that it was Max.

Booster didn't even try to hide his laugh.

"Be glad that I didn't insist you be here yesterday," Max said, his grip on Ted's shoulder tightening just enough to make it obvious that it was a warning instead of the friendly gesture that onlookers were probably taking it as.

There was a snort behind them as Guy walked past them and leaned against one of the columns they were standing beside. "I'd have liked to see you try."

Max raised an eyebrow as he finally loosened his grip on Ted, crossing his arms in front of his chest instead. He didn't say anything, though.

"That still doesn't explain why we're here," Bea said, yawning as she walked up and stopped several feet away from where Guy was standing. Tora was beside her, looking a little more awake than the rest of them but not quite as cheerful as usual.

"As I have told you multiple times, things like this are necessary," Max said with a bland smile. "It's good PR."

"Especially when we're responsible for half of this mall being closed while they repair the damage the giant robot caused when it exploded last week?" Ted asked dryly.

Max's smile grew somewhat forced. "Possibly."

"How much money did they claim to have lost by not being able to open for the sales yesterday?" Tora asked, tilting her head a bit. Her voice sounded innocent, but there was a glint in her eyes that suggested otherwise.

The smile on Max's face started to resemble more of a grimace. "A significant amount," he said dryly. "That, however, is not why we're here."

Guy suddenly started coughing. It was pretty realistic, and Ted might have bought it if it hadn't been for the distinct "bullshit" he heard mixed in with the coughs.

Tora frowned and elbowed Guy in the stomach. Based on his startled grunt, followed by a slight whimper, she hadn't been gentle about it.

Max closed his eyes and reached up to rub his temples, the last remnants of his strained smile disappearing completely.

Bea let out an unladylike snort. "I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Guy on this one."

"Thank you," Guy replied. His voice was only slightly strangled, though he was still clutching his midsection and giving Tora a wide berth.

Bea ignored him. "And why didn't _everyone_ have to come? The last time I checked, the five of us aren't the only ones on the team."

Never opening his eyes, Max cleared his throat. "As I've told you several times already, the others already had plans. All of them made that very clear. Especially-"

"I had other plans too, remember?" Bea said, narrowing her eyes as she cut him off mid-sentence. She crossed her arms in front of her and glared at Max. "You told that I needed to reschedule them."

Booster's eyes widened, just a bit, and he groaned.

Ted furrowed his brow. "For the good of the team?" he asked.

All of the others, save Max and Booster, glanced at him. Bea frowned. "How did you know that?" she asked slowly, a suspicious look appearing on her face.

Ted shot Max a dirty look of his own. "Booster and I had plans too."

"It was a practical joke convention," Max pointed out, still rubbing his temples and not opening his eyes.

There was a pause as Bea, Tora, and Guy took that in.

Tora's mouth twitched, just a little. "Thank you, Max," she said politely.

"Hey!" Booster exclaimed, though he looked more amused than annoyed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ted couldn't help it. He walked over and threw his arm over Booster's shoulder. "It means that they don't trust us," he said, theatrically covering his own heart with his free hand. "All this time, after everything we've done-"

"Exactly," Bea muttered.

"-and they still don't trust us," Ted continued, as if she hadn't said a word.

Booster opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by the sound of a good half dozen screams coming from the other side of the store. The six of them all turned in that direction, the looks on their faces ranging from surprise to dismay to obvious excitement.

Max groaned, bringing hand up to cover his face. "Whatever it is, this is _not_ our fault."

* * *

"Why do things like this always happen to us?" Guy asked, grunting as he used his ring to put a giant green shield in front of him and Ted, just in time to stop the bombardment of mini rockets heading their way.

Ted shot him an incredulous look. "Come, it's not like it's our fault," he pointed out. "The entire toy department of this store just came to life!"

Guy rolled his eyes. "If we hadn't been here, do you really think this would have happened?"

Ted started to reply before thinking better of it. "Of course it-" Then he cut off abruptly. As much as he hated to admit it, Guy probably had a pretty good point.

"How is this my life?" Ted asked plaintively. Then he ducked as what looked like a flock of toy pterodactyls dived at his head.

It looked like Guy was about to reply, but he didn't get a chance as a giant toy fire truck came speeding out of nowhere and rammed into him with enough force to send him flying a good five or six feet away. He slammed into a Barbie Dream House, hissing in pain as he rolled away from it.

The truck shifted its course slightly, aiming itself at Ted.

Ted bent his knees a little, trying to prepare to jump out of the way. "Really?" he asked, looking upward. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Duck!"

Booster's voice came out of nowhere, but Ted didn't hesitate. He immediately dropped to the ground, blinking in surprise when a giant bouncy ball went flying over his head and hit the truck hard enough to knock it onto its side.

Ted stared for a second or two as the fire truck's wheels spun wildly, the toy rocking back and forth as if it was trying to turn itself right side up again. Then he glanced in the direction that the ball had come flying from. Booster was hovering a foot or two above the ground and clutching a baseball bat that, thankfully, didn't appear to be trying to move on its own.

"Are you okay?" Booster asked. His grip on the baseball bat tightened a bit as he lowered himself to the ground.

"I hate my life," Ted said dryly as he pushed himself back to his feet.

The worried look on Booster's face faded a little. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

Ted rolled his eyes but he put aside his planned reply when he heard a quiet buzzing sound coming from somewhere nearby. He frowned and glanced around warily for any signs of movement. "Where are the others?" he asked after a quick looked around didn't reveal any more surprises.

Booster grimaced. "The last time I saw Max, he was turning an interesting shade of red as he disappeared into the store manager's office."

"This wasn't our fault," Ted said automatically.

"Just keep telling yourself that, Beetle," Booster said. "Anyway, Fire and Ice are helping keep all of the toys inside the store until we figure out what's going. People keep-"

He cut off abruptly, bringing the baseball bat up in a fast swing. The toy airplane that had been aiming straight at his head hit the ground a second later, not moving anymore. Then, as if he hadn't been interrupted, Booster continued. "-trying to sneak them out, especially the popular ones."

Ted stared for a moment. "Of course they do."

Booster shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me. I don't understand why people from this century do half the things they do." He paused and tilted his head. "Wait, I thought Guy was supposed to be with you."

There was a sudden crash nearby, and both of them spun in that direction. Booster brought the baseball bat back up in a defensive position.

Guy glared at them from the floor nearby, a child-sized table in multiple pieces less than a foot away from him. It was obvious that he'd been using it to pull himself to his feet, only for it to break and send him sprawling back to the floor.

Ted flinched. "Yeah, I forgot. The truck got him before you took it out with the ball."

Grumbling under his breath, Guy pushed himself to his feet a little stiffly. He shot both of them a dirty look. Then he kicked the Barbie Dream House that he'd crashed into earlier, not hard enough to break it but with enough force to send it sliding almost a foot away.

Booster flinched, glancing at a conspicuously pink aisle nearby. "Guy, maybe you shouldn't-"

Ted knew he shouldn't laugh. He tried his best. But when the horde of Barbie dolls suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started attacking Guy's legs, he just couldn't help himself.

* * *

It said a lot that the giant stuff animals armed with paintball guns didn't even cause Ted to blink, even when they managed to get the better of him and Booster. Then again, there wasn't much that could top what had happened in the toy dinosaur aisle. He was just glad those things hadn't been life-sized or else it would be a lot more than his ankles that were bleeding.

"We could really use a Green Lantern right around now," Booster said, his voice louder than it had been the last four times he had said that exact same sentence.

"Booster, if he could hear you, he'd have shown up to help already," Ted pointed out. He paused for just a second. "Probably."

Booster glared at him. "You shouldn't have laughed at him when the Barbies started trying to strangle him."

"Hey, you weren't exactly keeping a straight face either," Ted pointed.

"Maybe not," Booster said. "That doesn't mean that-"

He was cut off as a giant stuffed giraffe shot him in the chest with another paintball pellet, a bright splash of yellow mixing in with the other colors already there. Booster hissed with pain and stumbled slightly. Ted quickly grabbed him by the arm and steadied him. They had both learned quickly that, at close enough range, getting shot by those things hurt.

"You know what, maybe we should try not to make the nice stuff animals pointing guns at us angry," Ted said. "And I can't believe I just said that."

Booster gave him a lopsided grin. "Maybe they're taking us to their leader?"

"I hope so," Ted muttered. "I've got quite a few things I'd like to say to the jerk who's behind this."

Someone nearby made a sound that sounded almost like a cross between a gasp and a sob.

Both of them immediately turned toward the source of the noise, and Ted's eyebrows rose so high that he was afraid they might try to jump off of his face. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "_Really_?"

Booster made a strangled sound.

The teenager girl from earlier – what was her name, Jenny? Jeri? Gilly? no, Gina, it was Gina - stood up from the chair she had been sitting in, dozens or possibly even hundreds of toys gathered around her. She was biting her lip, staring at them with wide eyes. Wide eyes that were _glowing green_.

"Gina?" Ted asked, not even trying to hide his confusion.

Her eyes flashed, literally, and the stuffed animals that had been surrounding them suddenly fell to the floor as lifeless as. . . well, stuffed animals.

"I'm sorry," she said, sniffling a little. "I wasn't trying to cause trouble. It's just that you said that you thought I might be able to be a member of the Justice League one day, and I thought that maybe if I showed you that I have powers too then it would get your attention, but I didn't mean to hurt anyone or make you mad, I promise."

It was rather impressive that she managed to get all of that out without taking a breath.

"Let me get this straight," Ted said, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "You want to join the Justice League, so you brought a toy store to life in order to get our attention."

Gina nodded eagerly.

Ted sighed and glanced over at Booster.

"Well, it _did_ get our attention," Booster pointed out, sounding much too amused for someone who looked like he had been attacked by a trigger-happy rainbow and who probably had bruised ribs.

Rolling his eyes, Ted crossed his arms in front of his chest and kept staring at Booster.

Booster blinked at him a few times before giving a half-hearted shrug. "Let Max deal with it?" he suggested.

Gina sniffled again. She wasn't actually crying, but she looked like she was on the verge of it.

"Okay, okay," Ted said. "Can you- turn off the toys?"

She nodded. Her eyes flashed again, and all of the toys around them immediately collapsed. The green light faded from her eyes, revealing the light brown that Ted remembered from earlier.

Ted stood there a moment, not quite certain what to do next.

Booster sighed and pushed past him, walking over to where the girl was standing. He knelt down, grimacing a little as he did. "Where are your parents?"

Gina shrugged. "They said they'd be back this afternoon."

"They left you here?" Ted blurted out. "Alone?"

She blinked at him. "I'm twelve," she said, as if that explained everything. Who knew, maybe it did.

"Okay, then," Booster said. "We're going to walk over to the Barbie aisle for a second, and then the three of us are going to go find the store manager so that you can explain to him what happened and apologize."

Gina looked for a second like she was going to argue. Then she nodded. "And then I can ask if your boss will let me join the team?"

Booster glanced at Ted and raised an eyebrow. Ted shrugged. "Sure, why not. You never know unless you ask, right?"

Gina's eyes lit up – though, luckily, not in a green, glowing way, just a normal teenage girl way – and she immediately took Booster's hand when he offered it to her. He straightened up and started walking, hooking his arm in Ted's as he walked by.

Ted shook his head and started walking with them. After a minute or so, he leaned in closer to Booster.

"The Barbie aisle?" Ted asked softly, his mouth twitching.

Booster grinned at him. "What?" he asked innocently. "I just want to pick up Guy's Christmas present while we're here."


End file.
